Vacation, continued.
It really was a very well-maintained gravel road, all 20 miles of it. Being a gravel road, we couldn't really go very fast on it, so the first 20 miles took around 40 minutes.
Oh, how we cheered when we saw pavement ahead! hooray, hooray! We got to the four-way stop (paved road! huzzah!) and consulted the map. We were at the intersection of highways 2 and 41.
We were on the edge of one map. I consulted the other map. We were off the edge of that one, too. "Well, we're between maps..." I said.
An awkward silence ensued.
"So," bearmum prompted, "which way to Wind Cave?"
"Er..."
I studied the maps again. I looked at the intersection again. South was Oglala. North would hit Rapid City, bypassing Wind Cave entirely. Highway 2 stretched on before us towards Buffalo Gap. Surely, it was paved after this point?
"Forward!" I said.
"Forward!" Said bearmum.
20 yards further on, the road was gravel again. Shit.
It is probably a very good thing that my 'shortcut' was through incredibly beautiful country, or I suspect Mum would have throttled me right there and then. The road's quality began to vary noticeably. We drove around muddy rut patches and long strips of loose gravel, while to the south of us the crepuscular rays continued their stately march, the clouds above them boiling in slow motion. Eventually Mum pointed ahead of us to the horizon, while I fussed with my maps, trying to see where we were. "I'll bet that's Buffalo Gap."
Sure enough, the hills dropped away to a wide, level space - a break in the natural barrier of the hills. It was a fair distance ahead of us though - another twenty miles or so. Still, it was heartening to know we weren't headed in the wrong direction, so we continued onward, waving at long-braided, high-cheekboned faces in tractors and haytrucks as we passed them by. All in all, I think we spent about two hours on that gravel road.
At Buffalo Gap we were at last back on pavement to stay, and we followed the signs to Wind Cave National Park, a mighty big park surrounding a mighty small cave entrance.
We asked the nice park ranger for directions to the Cave Entrance, and sat there for a while, listening to the cave breathe - a continuous exhalation of wind that gives the Cave its name. According to the Lakota, Wind Cave is where the People first came up from the Lower World into this one. The entrance to is is tiny and womblike, a tiny cup the size of a mother's embrace, that twists down into the rock out of sight, into immeasurable depths.
Naturally, the cave has been mapped and delved, with a larger entrance blasted in and a revolving door and elevator put in for tours, but the tours were an hour and a half long, so we didn't go. we just sat and listened to the cave breathing, until it was time to go. We hit up their vending machines for sustenance, managed to leave my totebag on a bench (we went back for it when we noticed it was missing, about two miles up the road), and headed north again, taking the straightest POSSIBLE route to Rapid City and our nice, comfortable, hotel beds.
Were we done? Of course not. Gran'mama was at the hotel and was perfectly well-rested and cheerful. We just sort of flopped down like beached whales and had a few hours or rest before dinner.
All the time we were on the road, we never DID get lunch. we were RAVENOUS.
Dinner was a cheerful affair, we went to a little wine bar two doors down from the hotel. Their food is excellent, and the waitress was charming. After dinner, Gran'mama wandered upstairs to pack, and Mum and I took turns checking our email and writing on LJ and whatnot.
Eventually, there was sleep.
In the morning, we bundled all our luggage downstairs, had a huge breakfast (since we were going to be on planes all damn day) and trundled our long-suffering rental car back to the airport. The hotel folks seemed genuinely sorry to see us go - they took good care of us while we were there, and babied us wonderfully.
Gran'mama and I were on the same plane going out, so goodbyes were long, with multiple redundancies. Mum saw us both off in Rapid City, since her flight was later than ours, and I stayed with Gran'mama until her plane left out of Denver, before going down to the end of the terminal to catch my own plane home to Madison.
I was absently unbraiding my hair in the Madison Airport, headed towards Baggage Claim, when Joseph casually fell into step beside me.
"Oh! Hi."
"Hi."
And with that, I was home.